Month: January 2012

Attention all Brooklyn orchid lovers-slash-party people! On Friday, February 10, Brooklyn Botanic Garden is throwing what sounds like an incredibly fun bash called Lush. The party is being held in the BBG Palm House and will include the following:

Live music from boogaloo band Spanglish Fly (I actually have no idea what “boogaloo” style music is, but I imagine it’s festive)

Custom cut leaf silhouettes by artist Aaron Birk (this in particular sounds really cool and I’m curious to see the end result!)

But the most exciting part? I’ll let the event’s press release speak for itself:

“BBG curator Dave Horak will bring guests behind the scenes of BBG’s orchid collection, introducing some of the world’s most remarkable tropical specimens in BBG’s care. Guests will also have a special chance to see the orchid nursery, usually unavailable for public viewing, and learn about the critical conservation of tropical orchids.”

Dave Horak, BBG Orchid Curator. Photo by Elizabeth Peters

The events runs from 8pm to midnight and tickets are $65 a pop. I’m going to try to swing it, though being mostly unemployed makes it a hard for me to spend $65 for an evening out. The party does sound like it will be well worth it, though. Anyone out there planning to go?

Correction: I originally stated that tickets are $75, but they are in fact $65 apiece.

I have some exciting news! Exciting to me, anyway. You may or may not have noticed that my blog has begun redirecting to a different URL. That’s because I now have my very own site: http://bklynorchids.com/.

My blog looks basically the same as before, only now I have my own URL minus the “wordpress” part. I have my wonderful boyfriend to thank for helping me get this site set up properly, because if I tried to do it myself it would probably look like a website created in the 1990s.

What does this mean for you, Constant Reader*? Not much, as the site will redirect to bklynorchids.com if you point your browser toward my old URL, brooklynorchids.wordpress.com. But if you happen to have my site bookmarked or you subscribe to it in an RSS reader, you’ll want to make sure to use http://bklynorchids.com instead.

Why “bklyn” instead of the full-on “brooklyn”? Well, brooklynorchids.com was already taken—though no real website exists for that domain (booo, hiss!). Some folks use “BKLYN” to abbreviate the borough’s name, so I decided to go with that. It’s not hard to remember; just think “Brooklyn” without the “roo.” 🙂

So that’s my big announcement! If you see anything funky, please don’t hesitate to let me know by commenting here or emailing me at brooklynorchids [at] gmail [dot] com…though it should theoretically be smooth sailing from here on out. As always, thanks so much for reading my little ol’ blog!!

*Yeah, I just used a Stephen King reference. I’m 4 and a quarter books into the Dark Tower series, so King is in my brain right now…just call it ka.

Just a bit more than two weeks into 2012 and I have the first new bloom of the year! It’s a pretty little Phal that I bought at Trader Joe’s, probably about a year ago.

My first bloom of 2012!

This is one of the orchids that I’ve been experimenting on with Keiki Grow Paste. I’ve already separated a baby orchid from this plant and potted it on its own…and the baby is also in spike! Can’t wait to see the blooms on that little one. But for now, I will enjoy the blooms that are opening up on this pretty white and peachy-pink Phal.

Just a bit more than two weeks into 2012 and I have the first new bloom of the year! It’s a pretty little Phal that I bought at Trader Joe’s, probably about a year ago.

This is one of the orchids that I’ve been experimenting on with Keiki Grow Paste. I’ve already separated a baby orchid from this plant and potted it on its own…and the baby is also in spike! Can’t wait to see the blooms on that little one. But for now, I will enjoy the blooms that are opening up on this pretty white and peachy-pink Phal.

Happy New Year! With every new year comes a new Orchid Show at the New York Botanical Garden. This year the Orchid Show falls a bit later than usual; it will run from March 3 through April 22, 2012. This will be the show’s tenth anniversary and the theme is vertical gardening. French botanist Patrick Blanc is the show’s curator—the man who is said to be the creator of the living wall, aka the green wall. Even Blanc’s hair is green. Perhaps he should change his last name to Vert.

Enough with the lame green commentary. With this guy at the helm, this year’s Orchid Show is sure to be stunning. Take a gander at some of Blanc’s previous work:

So basically, this year’s Orchid Show is gonna be built by the rock star of vertical gardening. I cannot wait to see what he does with tons of stunning, blooming orchids. My gut says this show will be sold out a good deal of the time!